March 15 marks the 10th anniversary of the beginning of unrest in Syria. After a decade of conflict, Syria has become the world’s worst refugee crisis. Sarah Carabott spoke to two refugees and an aid worker.

‘I still have nightmares’

Hamad Alroosan fled war-torn Syria aged nine with his family, and no matter how many years pass or how successful he becomes the trauma will remain with him.

“It doesn’t matter how old I am, or how good I feel. I will always carry the memories with me, and I still have nightmares,” Hamad, now 18, told Times of Malta from Germany.

Hamad, his parents and brother were among the 200 survivors of the Lampedusa tragedy of October 11, 2013.

Driven out of Damascus in 2012, the family of Palestinian descent had travelled all the way to Libya, from where they had boarded a nine-metre fishing boat with around 400 other people.

One year after the tragedy, Hamad broke the nation’s heart with a drawing he showed Times of Malta depicting a green helicopter hovering over the sea where five stick figures were floating. Other men and women had been drawn raising their arms for help.

He had told the newspaper: “when the boat started sinking, I just heard children and women screaming. I wasn’t near my parents... I just heard my daddy and my mummy calling my name. I was very tired, I just raised my arms and tried to scream. But my throat hurt because of the salt water and my head hurt because I had hit it against the boat.”

The Alroosans, who had been warmly welcomed by the Maltese community, have since moved to Germany, where they are, in turn, supporting other refugees there.

“Even though most refugees in Germany are not Syrian, I can only imagine how overwhelmed they are feeling in a whole new country. I know that feeling, because I have been there.”

The parents are working at the local hospital; Hamad has taken up business studies and his brother has secured a job as a chef. Hamad hopes to one day have his own business but at the very top of his list is a trip to Malta when the pandemic is over.

I don’t see any hope for Syria

“I cannot wait to visit Malta and reunite with the people who welcomed me, especially Miss Sue Gregory from St Michael’s School and Samira Jamil. I miss Malta so much, and I have been promising my friends a road trip there when I get my driving licence.”

Does he think he will be able to return to Syria in his lifetime?

“I don’t see any hope for Syria. I’ve been told the place has been completely transformed. All our homes are gone and so have the neighbours – everyone is displaced. I cannot see us living there.”

‘I miss my country, but it’s too dangerous to return’

Ibo* too does not see any hope of returning to Syria, which he left just before the war broke out.

Trouble had been brewing from before people took to the streets, especially for nationals like Ibo, who is of Kurdish descent. 

“Just the other day I dreamt I was walking up and down streets in Syria… but even in my dream I was scared someone will jump out from behind some building and arrest me.

“I lived a life scared of someone breaking down the door in the early hours and arresting me and my relatives. I miss my country dearly, but it is too dangerous to return,” Ibo, who is of Kurdish descent, told Times of Malta nine years since taking part in a protest in Valletta calling for the overthrow of the Syrian government.

Since then, Ibo has set up his own business in Malta and started a family here. Malta is the home he had always dreamt of, and he recalls feeling safe and relieved the moment he stepped off the aeroplane some 12 years ago.

The relatives he left behind him in Syria too have fled the country, with one of his brothers being arrested twice as punishment for Ibo’s protests against Assad’s regime.

“To this day I urge people to speak up and fight for their freedom. And I will continue doing so until people are treated decently.”

*Ibo is not being identified for fear of reprisal.

‘I never imagined it would get so much worse’

When Karl Schembri visited Jordan’s Zataari camp two years after the beginning of the Syrian war, a father took the Maltese humanitarian worker to the side, away from his children, and asked him: “Will we end up like the Palestinians? Will we be refugees forever?”

“I had no answer back then, but there was still hope that they could return home, and I never imagined it would get so much worse eight years later,” he told Times of Malta.

In 2020, nearly 467,000 Syrians returned home, but 1.8 million became displaced inside Syria. This means that for every person who managed to return home, nearly four more were displaced. 

“The situation is at its most dire. It is the worst ever, in a decade of crisis that has been left to fester like a gaping wound. It was a decade of shame for humanity, really.

“And what’s worse is that just as this crisis hits the peak of suffering and despair, we’re seeing more countries cut their aid funding and disengaging from the diplomatic process to bring this crisis to an end,” said Schembri, from the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

Research by the council shows that displaced Syrians across the Middle East have overwhelmingly lost hope of returning home in the next five to 10 years.

“The few who expressed a desire to return home said they would only do so if there was political settlement, and their safety was guaranteed.

"Across the board, Syrians were more concerned about how they would put food on the table for their families, pay rent, or take care of medical expenses rather than envisioning a future back home.”

The Syrian war is older than the two world wars combined, with the biggest displacement of people since World War II. The conflict has killed nearly half a million people and displaced over half of its population.

One million children – twice the population of Malta - have been born in exile.

Schembri said the NRC still sees no solutions in place to end the crisis, with more than 23 million people inside Syria and neighbouring countries in need of humanitarian assistance.

NRC’s projections show that another decade of crisis could see at least another six million more displacements caused not just by the conflict but also because of economic despair.